and Loki as kindred names; but that would be hazardous. The former makes in the genitive Lugdech, which in its early form in Ogam is found variously written Lugudeccas and Lugudeca,[1] which yields the crude form Lugudec, to be treated probably as a compound Lugu-dec, meaning one who had something to do with Lug or lug; this cannot, however, be defined so long as the signification of the second element is unknown. Provisionally perhaps one might regard it as equivalent to 'Lug-slayer,' or possibly the darkener, conqueror or devourer[2] of lug in the sense of light. It might be objected that Lugaid is not made in Irish story to kill Lug, but Cúchulainn; that, however, does not much matter, as Cúchulainn is an avatar of Lug or the latter in another form. Had more Irish myths been preserved, and in a more ancient form, one might expect to find that Lugaid was in the first instance matched with Lug and not with Cúchulainn. As it is, we are only told that Lug was slain by Mac Cuill,[3] whose name being interpreted seems to mean the Son of Destruction, which would also exactly suit Lugaid, the Loki of Goidelic mythology. The name of Lugaid was, however, not confined to Ireland; for wherever the Sun-god roamed, there his mortal foe must also come in his time; and as we found traces of the
- ↑ The stones are at Ardmore and Kilgrovane in co. Waterford: I examined both in 1883; but see Brash, pp. 247, 257, pl. xxxvi.
- ↑ What the original figure may have been, it would be hard to guess with any certainty; but compare the old Teutonic idea that an eclipse of the sun was owing to his being swallowed by a celestial beast of prey, and see an ingenious picture of the scene in York Powell's Old Stories from British History (London, 1882), p. 11.
- ↑ It admits, however, of being also translated 'the Son of (the) Hazel.'
